Our Broken Pieces
by littlehera
Summary: Aera Lee is a slightly violent hacker who just happens to love Otome Games. Saeran Choi is Mint Eye's genius hacker whose only goal is to destroy the RFA. Both have painful pasts neither would like to remember. By some twist of fate, their lives collide. But will their broken pieces remain shattered and incomplete? Or will they find a way to fix their scars and become whole?
1. Prologue

_Hi! This is my first Mystic Messenger fanfic dedicated to our beloved messed-up cinnamon bun, Saeran Choi! This is my attempt in creating an 11-day route for Saeran with an Original Character (OC) which will be revealed in the story. I would have done a SaeranXReader fanfic but I couldn't decide on how to write it (*cries*). So, please feel free to replace the OC's name with your name or a name that you prefer. I don't mind. :)_

 _Spoiler Alert:_

 _There WILL be spoilers in the plot. I will be mentioning some of the events from Seven's route and Secret Endings 1 &2\. If you don't want to be spoiled, you might want to ignore this fic. But if you know who Saeran is, then I guess you've either completed most of the game OR have been spoiled to the point of no return. Been there, done that. Haha._

 _Language Warning:_

 _Story has some (light to moderate) swearing inside. It also *might* contain themes of physical abuse and suicide._

 _I hope you enjoy this little fanfic! All MM characters belong to cheritz, not me._

 _I'd love it if you can drop me reviews, comments and suggestions. I also have an original story published both here and on Wattpad (user: chibihera)_

 _Thanks for reading! :D_

PROLOGUE: The Otome Game Hacker and I

The bright LCD monitor lit up the otherwise dark apartment and shone on the room's only occupant. Messy brown hair was tied in a lopsided bun on top of the female's head. Her bangs hid her eyebrows. Unfortunately, neither her hair nor her glasses could hide the dark circles around her tired eyes. Nevertheless, her honey-brown orbs were focused on the colored words that were on her screen. To an ordinary person, the string of letters and symbols meant nothing. To her, the jumble of characters was her mode of livelihood and as she reached the end of the file she was checking, she breathed a sigh of relief.

She logged in to a special software that allowed her to access her company's virtual private network. She opened her company email and typed out more than a dozen bullet points composed of technical jargon and brief explanations. With a single click of her mouse, she had sent the mail to her team leader. Within a few seconds, her company mobile rang.

' _15 security holes exposed in 15 hours! You make hacking seem so simple. You're even on your day off.'_ The male on the other end sighed. _'And all these observations are so thorough. You make me jealous sometimes, Aera Lee.'_

The female rolled her eyes and adjusted the glasses that were now slipping down her nose. "I'm just above average, you know that."

Aera Lee had been a hacker for two years. She had managed to land an internship in a local Software Security Firm in her 4th year of college. They had taught her the basics on how to look for vulnerabilities and common software exploits. She had enjoyed it to the point of addiction. Because of this, she stood out from the rest of the interns working beside her. The moment she graduated from college at 19 years of age, they had decided to hire her. At 20, she was the youngest hacker in their company. Coincidentally, she was also the best. Although that last point was something she didn't believe, her teammates bragged about it at every chance they could get. And after she had finished their recent project, Aera had a feeling they were going to do it again pretty soon.

' _But thanks to you, our team's been performing better than all the other teams!'_ Her team leader announced. _'Thanks to you, I can finally send this report to C &R International. Who knew their employee database still had some vulnerabilities?'_

"They're pretty high-level stuff," She said, referring to the exploits she found. "You need to be very good at hacking if you want to exploit their system."

' _True.'_ The man replied.

Aera could hear distinct grumbling and chattering in the background. She glanced at her clock. It was 11PM. "Boss, why are you still at the team's office?"

' _How'd you know?'_

"I can hear Hyun Jae and Ji Ho. Lisa's also pretty noisy - as usual. All-nighter? Another project?" She guessed.

Collective groans erupted from the other end. She heard a loud thump. Someone had probably snatched the phone from the male's hands. The voice that answered her was high-pitched, whiny and female. Aera could already imagine the other person pouting and sulking as she talked.

' _Aeraaaaa~…'_ The female on the other end sobbed. _'Come back to the office. They gave us more work!'_

"I'll be back tomorrow, Lisa-Unni." Aera replied. "After I try this new Otome Game."

' _Otome Game!?'_ Lisa screamed. Aera had to pull her phone back a few inches as the woman screamed. _'You didn't install it on the company phone, did you!?'_

"Relax. I'm not that careless. This phone's been tweaked to make it untraceable. I have a separate phone under a fake name. All the fun stuff's in there." Aera sighed. "Although I have a feeling I won't be enjoying it much since we have another job."

Aera heard Lisa moan in sadness. _'Don't remind me! Team leader Park, you talk to her! Tell her to come back!'_

The phone switched hands. The male she spoke to earlier laughed. _'Well… You heard her, Aera. See you tomorrow?'_

"Hmm," Aera murmured. "Bye."

Aera closed all the applications she was running. She carefully wiped any traces of her work and made sure she had cleaned her computer of all confidential information that either pointed to her, the company and the company's clients. The security firm she was working for might have been legal, but there were people who wanted to use their data illegally. Being a hacker had meant living in a certain degree of secrecy. She didn't mind. Even Aera had a past she didn't really want to talk about. And although she was a hacker, she knew she wasn't a genius. She knew her limits. If a genius hacker happened to get their clients' data from her computer, they would be so dead even black magic and alchemy wouldn't be able to bring them back to life.

She set her company phone down on her cramped desk and turned her attention to her other phone. The plain dark blue casing contrasted with her small pale hands. With a few swipes, she had managed to navigate to the app she had downloaded. She was a bit of an otaku when it came to Otome games. The description had said something about chatting with hot guys. That had definitely caught her attention. And since the game seemed rather harmless, she decided to give it a try. If it wasn't as interesting as she thought, she could always uninstall it and find another one.

When the game asked for her name, she had entered 'Hyun Jo' which was a combination of Hyun Jae and Ji Ho's names. Even if Aera Lee wasn't her real name, she refused to use it at any kind of transaction. But instead of the usual Visual Novel sequence she was expecting, she found herself chatting to a guy named, 'Unknown'. That, in itself, was starting sirens inside Aera's mind. She started debating about removing the app from the face of the earth.

Unknown sent her a message.

 **Unknown: Hello?**

 **Unknown: Is there anybody there?**

 _Maybe this is still part of the game,_ she told herself. Hesitantly, she replied.

 **Hyun Jo: ?**

Unknown expressed his relief at being able to talk with someone. He told her how he had found a phone in a subway and had been trying to contact someone in order to return the phone to its rightful owner. Then, he asked her to do something for him. This only made Aera more skeptical. He wanted her to slip a note inside another person's home. She kept on declining in the nicest way possible. Instead of backing off, the man sent her a photo of a somewhat good looking guy which he claimed was him. He pleaded for her to trust him. He asked Aera to visit the place he was talking about. It was safe, he said. And if she felt uncomfortable, she could just leave the house and never return.

This was supposed to be a game right? So why the hell was a guy asking her to go to an address? It was too suspicious. She suddenly thought of uninstalling the game and calling it a night. But her intuition was telling her something was up. She remembered that she had just sent an email filled with confidential exploit data a few minutes ago. Could this guy be after the data? Could he be a spy sent by a rival agency?

Aera felt an odd tingle on her spine. She tried to convince herself that she was overreacting. Still, she couldn't ignore the feeling settling in her gut. She plugged her phone into her computer, opened her command line editor. She accessed her phone's logs through her computer. It seemed like the app was working correctly. She breathed a sigh of relief.

However, Aera still felt unsettled. So she ran diagnostics and went in deeper. While the software was running in the background, she managed to trace the route the messages were going through. She checked the sender's IP Address.

The IP address had her holding her breath. It was an IP address that belonged to the building she was staying in. Aside from that, her diagnostics software had come back with alarming results. Someone was hacking into the application! It meant that the hacker was within the building and that she was possibly in danger.

A hacker, an Otome Game, database exploits, and a security company. "Otome Game" was definitely the odd one out of the four things she was thinking of. Without the Messenger Application she had installed, the other three would have made perfect sense together. But the hacker hacked into an Otome Game she had happened to play just after she had sent an email full of intelligence to the security agency. She had double-checked everything. She had left no trace. The game had been on the app store for everyone to see. Hacking the Otome Game didn't make sense.

Did the hacker know that she had installed an Otome Game in her phone?

She shook her head. "That's… too big a coincidence."

However, as a hacker, she knew she had to be extra cautious. If this guy was after her or the company's intelligence, then she needed to alert the higher-ups about it. She flicked her company phone and called Team Leader Park.

The person who answered was Lisa.

' _Flirting with Team Leader Park on the phone isn't practical. Come to the office. I'm begging you.'_

Aera didn't bother correcting her and went directly to the point. "Someone just hacked into the Otome Game I'm running on my other phone." Her voice was flat and emotionless. It was unusual, but it was possible. Aera kept her head cool. Unfortunately for her, Lisa was doing the exact opposite.

' _WHAT?!'_ Lisa literally screamed. Aera's ear almost fell off. _'YOUR PHONE GOT HACKED?! OH GOD….!'_

Lisa cursed. Aera had to remind her to keep her voice down before she continued to narrate her current situation. "My other phone has no intel and can't be traced back to me. However, the guy keeps on insisting that I go to an address and leave a note. I've been telling him that I don't want to."

' _I can hear keyboard tapping,'_ Lisa said. This time, her voice was lower. She hissed on the other end. _'What the hell are you doing right now!? Why haven't you deleted the thing yet!?'_

Aera poured her attention on her computer screen. "Oh. I forgot to tell you. He's in the building. I traced his IP. The first 3 octets are registered to the building. I already checked."

The screaming was louder now. _'WHAT!?'_

"He just sent me the address. Wait." Aera's hands swiftly flew to her keyboard. She opened a database crawler that could access hundreds of thousands of databases across the world. It wasn't exactly legal. But she wasn't in a position to be picky about the methods she could use. She opened the address the Unknown guy had sent her. She gave a hollow laugh. "Ha ha. The address he sent is actually an apartment a floor above mine."

She ignored Lisa's curses and ran a quick search on the address. A guy named Jihyun Kim had purchased the apartment. Aera searched for the guy named Jihyun Kim. He turned out to be a photographer. There was no way that he was the hacker. Aera rapidly typed a jumble of commands on her computer and watched as the signal strength between her computer and the hacker's computer was being measured every 45 milliseconds. But the strength between each interval wasn't staying constant.

It was changing, getting stronger. That only meant the hacker was moving. And he was getting closer to the location he had sent. Aera cursed.

' _You… YOU!'_ Lisa was probably hyperventilating. The screaming intensified. _'GET. OUT. OF. THERE. NOW.'_

"I can't." Aera replied quickly. "He's moving up. Luckily, I'm closer to the apartment than he is so if I run there in a few, I can still make it before he does."

' _CRAZY WOMAN! Are you planning to ambush him!?'_

"He disabled the security camera on that floor." Aera groaned. "I should turn it on before I go up."

Lisa's voice rose an entire octave. _'ARE YOU TRYING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED?! AERA LEE! DRAG YOUR ASS TO THE OFFICE, NOW!'_

"Unni, you don't understand the situation right now, do you?" Aera stated calmly. She pulled a sling bag and stuffed it with anything that looked heavy. She made sure that the bag was closed securely. She explained everything as briefly as she could as she prepared to head out. "We don't know if he's after us or the company's data but since he's a hacker he's definitely tracing my phone's location as we speak. The phone is old and has a crappy GPS so he can't know that I'm in this specific apartment. Nevertheless, he knows I'm in the building. If he manages to get to me, he might be able to hold me hostage. We don't want that, do we?"

' _And you honestly think that going up to the address he sent is going to prevent that!? Are you nuts!?'_ Lisa's voice was calmer now. But that didn't mean that she wasn't the least bit anxious and panicked over the turn of events.

"I'm a black belter in Karate-do. I also took precautions." The female hacker peeked at her computer monitor. The 'Unknown' guy was moving faster. "Can't talk. I'll be leaving this phone in my room. Tell Boss everything. I'll call once it's over."

Aera heard Lisa's protest through her speakers but she ended the call and headed up to the location the other hacker had sent her. If she had estimated her timing right, in about a minute, Unknown should arrive on the same floor as her. She started counting. As soon as she reached 57, she received another message – right on schedule. Unknown was asking her if she had gotten to the apartment and if she could see the security keypad. Of course there was a security keypad on the door! Even without looking at the door, Aera already knew the answer. She lived in the goddamned building! She had gone around the building a good number of times. There was no way she wouldn't remember the unique engraved doorknob that had the letters RFA emblazoned on it. When she replied with a yes, the hacker had given her the security key. She refused to punch it in. She argued about ringing the doorbell first.

At the corner of her eye, she could see a shadow looming at the staircase. Unknown replied rather harshly – a proof that he was getting impatient. The shadow in the corner was starting to get jittery. Aera held on to her mobile phone calmly. She resisted the urge to smirk and replied.

 **Hyun Jo: I don't want to, though.**

 **Unknown: What? Please...! I'm begging you. This is all for the good of this phone's owner!**

 **Hyun Jo: So? It's a crime to trespass in another person's apartment without the owner's permission. I'm not an idiot. I don't want to get my finger prints on the keypad.**

The man continued to plead for a while. But before long, Aera saw the shadow moving towards her. She stuffed her phone inside her jean's pocket. Her right hand automatically went to her bag's shoulder strap almost protectively. Her eyes searched the hallway and found herself staring at a male who had the most piercing pair of green eyes she had ever seen.

The black leather jacket hung loosely on his shoulders. His accessories leaned more on the punk rock and grunge side, Aera mused wryly. Beautiful green orbs looked down at her in disdain. Aera took a step back and met his gaze with her own. Her hold on her bag tightened.

His voice was distorted. His neck and half of his face was covered with a black cloth mask. Aera guessed that a voice changing device was hidden behind the cloth. But when he spoke, it had caused a shiver to run down her spine. And it was a shiver the man had taken as a sign of fear.

"The plan has failed." The distorted voice said. "I need to find someone else."

Aera spoke in a low tone. She faked the tremble in her voice. "Who the hell are you?!"

"You don't need to know." He huffed. "What do I do with you? I'd like to let you go, but you already know me!"

Aera watched him with wide eyes. She kept her mouth shut. Green eyes seemed to laugh. The muffled voice escaped from his mask. "Sorry, but you'll have to come with me."

The panicked façade fell from Aera's face. This time, she was the one who huffed, "Looks like we were thinking the same thing."

Aera didn't wait for him to talk. She turned on her heel and used the momentum to slam her bag on the unnamed man's face. Her bag hit its target dead center. The man staggered backwards. Unknown fell down unconscious on the floor like a heavy sack of potatoes. Aera stood defiantly and stared down at him with lidded eyes.

She placed her hands on her waist. A single word escaped her lips.

"Idiot."


	2. Chapter 1

The Girl with the Holy Bible

"And what exactly were you planning on doing?! Were you going to drag him all the way down here, HUH!?"

"I told you… I was going to call security and dump him outside. You don't need to be here."

"AND WHAT IF HE REALLY IS AFTER YOU!? DO YOU THINK HE'D LET THIS GO?!"

"Now, now, Lisa. At least we made it in time."

"DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO CALM ME DOWN! I AM NOT CALM! I AM NOT CALM!"

Saeran woke up to the sound of three people talking and a throbbing pain in his skull. He remembered seeing a brown haired female standing in front of his savior's apartment. He was about to take her back to Paradise. What happened right after?

He opened his eyes just a fraction of an inch. The room was dark. The only light source in the small loft was a computer screen that glowed with an eerie blue tint. A female sat in front of the computer. Her back was hunched ever so slightly as the girl read something on the computer screen. Her rectangular lenses reflected the blue hue of the LCD monitor. Beside the computer, a sling bag sat quietly in the darkness. It was an item Saeran vaguely recognized.

Saeran tried to lunge at the offending object and found that his hands and legs were bound tightly by some kind of rope. The chair he was bound to scrapped against the tiled floor. The conversation around him automatically died and three heads turned to face him. From the voices a while ago, he could tell that there were 2 females and one man inside the room aside from him. The darkness made it hard for Saeran to see their faces. But the girl sitting in front of the computer was the same female who had knocked him out. He was definitely going to enjoy dragging her back to his Savior. He was definitely going to enjoy making her go through the same amount of torture that he had gone through when he had been converted to a believer.

"YOU! -"Saeran's voice came out clear instead of distorted. The mask he wore on his face was gone. He growled at the girl called Hyun Jo. Her two companions stood in his line of sight. He guffawed and sneered at them. "Once I get out of here, I will make sure you all suffer! Mint Eye will not let you go! My Savior will make sure you will be discarded and painfully rehabilitated in Paradise!"

"We should have gagged him," the male in their group said. "The noise will bother the neighbors. I should have bought a washcloth along with the clothesline rope."

"It's fine. Lisa-unni would have been enough to wake the neighbors," Hyun Jo said, her eyes never leaving the computer screen. She ignored the other female's glare. "Besides, the room is soundproofed. If not, the complaints would have started the moment the two of you came in."

"Just what the hell was inside that bag of yours that it was enough to knock a person senseless, huh?!" The brown haired female handed the loud-mouthed woman a brown leather sling bag. The unknown woman took the bag from her hands and fished out its contents. She took out a hardbound book from her bag.

The brown-haired female's eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh, look. The Holy Bible."

Their male colleague nodded in appreciation. "Amen."

"AERA LEE! Don't bring an effing Bible along to your schemes!"

"Aera Lee?" Saeran stared at Hyun Jo in disgust. The female's eyes darted from the loud mouth female to him.

"He didn't know that." The woman who attacked him tsked and kept her attention on the computer monitor. "…So careless."

He laughed. He laughed until he ran out of breath. A fake name! The girl had dared to use a fake name! And the other woman had given him her true identity! To a hacker, this was the same as giving him her life. Identification numbers, school history, her family members, her connections – as long as Saeran had her name, he could find virtually anything about her. He was going to destroy her in the same way he was going to destroy the goddamned man who dared to betray him!

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Aera Lee, is it? Once I get out of here, I'm going to make you lose everything that you have!" Saeran glared at the people holding him hostage. The savage grin that was on his face refused to disappear. "Once Mint Eye notices that I've gone missing, you and your friends will be wiped out from the face of this country! Anyone who goes against our Savior will be eliminated! You are nothing but a bug in the face of our Savior! You're not worthy of the paradise our Savior has promised us!"

"Savior?" The loud-mouthed female voice spoke. "If you're just part of a religious cult, I'll have you know we have our own means of dealing with you."

"Means? You think your puny means can compare to that of our Savior? Then try it!" Saeran licked his lips. "Hold me hostage. Kill me. Mint Eye will find this place. Mint Eye will make sure that all of you and the people around you will suffer!"

A sigh echoed from the back of the room. The two adults blocking his view turned and faced the girl with the glasses. The younger female's voice was quiet. But the room was small. Even Saeran could her every word from their conversation.

"At least we know he wasn't initially interested in the company." The brown-haired female said. She cast him a look that he returned with a glower. She ignored it. "Sadly, the term is 'initially'. Boss, you should look at this."

The male went over towards her and looked over her shoulder. The other female scoffed. "What do you mean, 'initially'?"

This time, it was the man who spoke. "Since you gave out Aera's name, he could trace her back to the company. And from the data Aera pulled, it seems that the religious cult he's in could easily spell trouble for us."

Saeran saw the girl called Lisa flinch. Her reaction made him laugh even louder. "That's right! You are nothing in the eyes of the Savior! You disgusting pests will be eliminated as soon as they discover that you touched me with your dirty hands!"

The female who had hit him leaned back on the swivel chair to look at him. "Savior? You mean Rika?"

Saeran's blood boiled. "Don't you dare call our Savior's name! You have no right to say her name with your filthy tongue!"

He saw her roll her eyes before going back to the task she had abandoned. He felt the rage wash over him in waves. He growled at her and struggled against his bindings, ignoring how the rope was cutting into his flesh. He yelled at her to face him, to look him in the eyes. He screamed to call her attention. He wanted to see her helplessness at the situation, to see the fear slowly creep into her system. He wanted to see her beg for salvation. He wanted her to be afraid of him, to cower at the sight of him.

The reaction he had gotten from her couldn't have been more different.

"Shut the fuck up."

Her face bared no hint of fear. Her voice was steady, low, commanding. Cold, emotionless orbs stared at him from behind rectangular frames. Even without her words, Saeran would have kept his silence. The intense gaze she had was enough to keep his mouth shut. Her eyes were the eyes of someone who had seen too much. They were eyes that feared nothing – not even death.

And in that respect, she was just like him.


	3. Chapter 2

The Deal

Seunggi Park whipped his head towards Aera. 2 years ago, the quiet brown-haired female had joined their team formally. Although they had met during her internship, Team Leader Park had no idea what the girl was like when she worked. She warmed up to his team a few months after her hiring. Her attitude in the workplace wasn't any different from when she was an intern. She was still a quiet and calm-mannered person. There was only one thing different: she could trash talk in a way that could make even adult men blush. Only, her cursing was a rare occurrence. And it was a habit of hers that came out when she was either in a very bad situation or if she was pissed off.

And with that, Seunggi Park knew that their current predicament wasn't a laughing matter.

If this Unknown guy wasn't lying, it meant that they were in deep trouble.

The man had bleached white hair that was tinted red at the tips. White hair wasn't new in Korea. But the unnamed hacker's twisted gaze unsettled Seunggi Park. Green eyes stared at them with a ferocity Seunggi hadn't seen before. He knew that Lisa was probably feeling worse. He glanced at the data Aera had gathered. If they publicized the data, it would undoubtedly cause a scandal. However, he knew it wasn't enough to get rid of the organization.

He bent down and whispered into Aera's ear. "Does he know that you're a hacker?"

Instead of whispering, Aera opened her computer's Notepad application and typed out her reply. 'Not sure. If he searches for my name and hacks into all of the databases in Korea, he'll eventually figure it out.'

She quickly erased the text and typed out something else. 'His stuff's on the bed. Check for a GPS or tracking device. Eliminate his bluff on Mint Eye figuring out his whereabouts.'

He nodded. Lisa stared at their exchange. "What are you two up to?"

Seunggi Park tossed her the black jacket that probably belonged to the green-eyed male. "Look for a tracking device. We'll see if he really has one on him and if this Mint Eye group can really trace him to this place."

Lisa appeared shocked at first. She nodded slowly as she understood and started inspecting the leather jacket's pockets. Seunggi Park found a black cellular phone and proceeded to open it. On the other hand, Aera's fingers continued to dance over her computer's keyboard. Every now and then, the younger woman would stare at her mobile phone and type out short replies in what appeared to be a messenger application. The three of them ignored the white-haired male's vehement protests. A few minutes later, Lisa broke their concentration with a loud hiss. She fished out a small black device from a hidden pocket inside the jacket's seams. This only made their captive laugh manically.

"We're in trouble." Seunggi stated plainly. As the leader of a team of hackers, he was used to facing sticky situations. There was no use panicking over something like this. Nevertheless, it didn't mean he knew how to solve it.

Aera's hands glided over her keyboard. 'Don't turn it off. It's more suspicious if the signal disappears.'

Lisa held his gaze. He shook his head. He looked at Aera. The other girl seemed to be lost in her thoughts.

The guy they had tied up took it as an opportunity to start a lengthy tirade on how Mint Eye was going to reform the world into a Paradise by starting with the three of them. Both he and Lisa tuned the other guy's ramblings out. However, the things this boy was saying – if Mint Eye was really able to do all of it, then Mint Eye wasn't something they could underestimate. The thought was very terrifying.

Aera spun in her swivel chair. The creaking noise from her chair didn't stop the white-haired male from talking. The bespectacled female stared at the teal-eyed man with curiosity.

"You're… trying to infiltrate RFA, aren't you?" Aera spoke slowly.

The other man had finally shut up.

Aera continued. "If I refused to cooperate with your plot, you were going to look for another victim. And all of the people who rejected you were brought to this 'Paradise' of yours or were disposed. Am I right?"

"So what!? It doesn't matter! All of you will be crushed by Mint Eye!" Green eyes stared at her with blind confidence. "Our Savior will transform this world into her paradise and insects like you have no place in our paradise!"

"This guy…" Lisa sneered at him. She made her way to strangle him, but Team Leader Park grabbed on to her forearm and stopped her.

"It matters. You want RFA. I want you to stay away from my Company." Aera stood from her seat and walked towards the boy they had caught. "Instead of fighting with each other, why don't we strike a deal?"

The bound man's eyes widened in surprise before he started laughing. Even Seunggi and Lisa were taken aback. A deal? What exactly was this girl thinking of?

"A deal!? Do you even understand the position you're in!?" Green orbs stared at them mockingly. "Mint Eye will crush you!"

"Not if I can crush you first." Aera stated simply. Before the other man could talk, Aera exposed everything she had found: Rika's forged death, the land that had been registered in her name, the cash deposits and fraudulent bank accounts that could be traced to her. Aera summarized everything beautifully in a few sentences and pushed her glasses up to the bridge of her nose. "I think that's enough to stir up trouble for your Savior, isn't it?"

It seemed that the green-eyed hacker had finally realized that Aera wasn't an ordinary female. The other man cursed at her. "How… Who are you!?"

"You mentioned something about our 'means', right? Well, then… Allow me to tell you." Team Leader Park said. Lisa seemed to protest. But Seunggi Park continued anyway. "We are also hackers. And we have a few contacts we can use in order to break Mint Eye apart."

"Do you honestly think people will believe you if you leak out that information!? You-," Green orbs met each of their eyes with spite. His voice was laced with venom. "You're nothing but a group of pathetic humans. Our followers will be able to crush you with our strength! "

"But the RFA group has a hacker, no?" Aera pointed out. "The public might not believe us. But if I send him the intelligence I've gathered around Mint Eye and Rika, I think he'd at least try to investigate on his own."

Lisa turned towards her. "You… how deep in this RFA thing have you investigated?!"

"I didn't investigate." She showed them her phone screen. The messenger interface showed them the chat messages that were currently streaming in the chat box in real time. "The hacker-guy told me about it himself."

The white-haired man screamed. The mention of RFA's hacker seemed to drive him mad. "Don't you dare! I'll thoroughly crush you! I'll kill you!"

Seunggi Park took a deep breath. He finally understood what Aera was trying to do. "We've found our bargaining chip, huh?"

The man they had caught continued screaming. Lisa seemed lost. Aera nodded and went back to her computer. "I'll send you the files in a few. But we'll need to deposit him outside. We'll start with negotiations tomorrow."

A growl escaped from the guy. "What makes you think I'll cooperate with you!?"

"You have no choice." Aera replied. She tossed a gray object to Seunggi Park. It was a Taser. "That thing's his. Boss, can I ask you to knock him out and kick him out?"

Team Leader Park nodded. "Sure. Can I trust you with the security cameras?"

He heard rapid typing followed by a few clicks. "Done." Aera declared.

Seunggi Park stuffed all of the other guy's belongings inside the pockets of his black leather jacket. The normally friendly adult gave the green-eyed man a deathly glare. The shadows that were cast over Seunggi Park's face made him look like a serial killer. The unknown male twisted and turned in an attempt to resist. Seunggi pressed the Taser to his neck. The other male twitched before sinking to unconsciousness. The team leader untied him, took the black leather jacket and slung the unconscious male over his back.

"This feels like a scene from a Detective Manga," Seunggi muttered. "And we're the bad guys."

"Technically speaking, we just kidnapped and detained a person illegally," Aera said, her eyes still glued to her screen. "That kind of makes us bad guys, to a certain extent."

Seunggi sighed. "I guess this also means you won't be able to come to work tomorrow. You'll be taking care of this, won't you?"

"Ah." Aera's head slowly turned to face him in a way that seemed almost mechanical. "Sorry. Can I take all my work home?"

"Sure. But in return, you have to explain everything to Lisa. She still seems a bit lost." Seunggi opened the door and stepped out. "Lisa, I'll need you to distract the security guard. Can you come down with me for a bit?"

The other female nodded and followed him quietly. As soon as he managed to mount his motorcycle with the unknown male on his back, Lisa had made her way back up to Aera's apartment. Seunggi huffed and rode off carefully in the night. Although the streetlights illuminated the roads the he was going through, his future seemed dark. They were lucky enough to have found leverage against the boy who had tried to lure Aera to the suspicious apartment. He only prayed that this small advantage would last forever.


End file.
